A Russian official was branded an imbecile by the Kremlin after spotting an earthworm in his plate of salad at a reception for the German president and posting a photograph on Twitter.

Kremlin fury at worm salad tweet

A Russian official was branded an imbecile by the Kremlin after spotting an earthworm in his plate of salad at a reception for the German president and posting a photograph on Twitter.

Tver region governor Dmitry Zelenin posted a photograph of the small red worm on the edge of a plate of salad on Twitter at a Kremlin reception for German President Christian Wulff and his wife.

"The beef came with live worms," Zelenin wrote, adding that, "That's an original way to show that the lettuce leaf is fresh."

But the Kremlin did not relish the joke.

The Kremlin's top foreign policy advisor, Sergei Prikhodko, said he regretted that there was no rule on "firing governors for imbecility."

He slammed the governor, saying, "I won't even talk about (his) irresponsibility and stupidity."

Zelenin, who is a member of the ruling United Russia party is in charge of a important region northwest of Moscow, later deleted the posting.

The Kremlin kitchens are being checked after the incident, said a spokesman for the presidential administration, Viktor Khrekov. He cast doubt on the photograph's authenticity, however.

"A preliminary analysis of the photograph shows it does not match the location nor the table settings at this official event," Khrekov said.

Bloggers jokingly compared Zelenin to the sailors of Battleship Potemkin, immortalised in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 film, who mutinied in 1905 after they found maggots in their meat.

It is not the first time Twitter has caused a stir in Russia.

Medvedev sent his own first message on Twitter in June, while visiting Silicon Valley, and his KremlinRussia account has been updated regularly with tweets and photographs.

He has encouraged officials to use e-mail and write blogs.